Fuel cost comparison

[EatenByLimestone]

I probably seem like a bit of an odd ball with my electricity scrubbing mission. I suppose I am. But I don't think most have run the numbers to see what energy costs and compared them.

I just ran a new comparison. 24.1 cents per kilowatt hour and 79.4 cents per therm for natural gas. Put them into a similar unit of measure (btu) and then use a nice round number that one will eventually hit with normal usage with both fuels (1,000,000) and you can see a definite difference. 1 million BTUs of natural gas will cost me $992.50. 1 million BTUs of electricity will cost $7,061.30.

This tells me that I might be crazy, but at least I can rationalize it. (broken image removed)


There is 1 detail that the numbers don't tell. I have a generic fee for the privilege of being hooked up to the utility for both gas and electricity. As I use more of the service, the fee gets spread out more and the cost per unit goes down. So, as winter gets pushed further and further away my cost per btu of gas will go up.


Edit: it appears the spreadsheet I used to calculate my numbers was incorrect. I checked 2 other websites and my numbers are changed as follows:

Cost per million BTUs of

Gas $7.94
Electricity: $70.63

 

[velvetfoot]

Is this a bragging 'cause you have natural gas post?

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Versus crying if I only had electricity?

Well, yeah, I guess so!

 

[Grisu]

I just ran a new comparison. 24.1 cents per kilowatt hour and 79.4 cents per therm for natural gas. Put them into a similar unit of measure (btu) and then use a nice round number that one will eventually hit with normal usage with both fuels (1,000,000) and you can see a definite difference. 1 million BTUs of natural gas will cost me $992.50. 1 million BTUs of electricity will cost $7,061.30.

I think you want to say 7061 cents per mBTU of electricity or $70.61. For the natural gas it would be $7.94 (at 100,000 BTU per therm).

Your electricity is pretty expensive while your natural gas is quite cheap. How much do you pay in distribution charges for the nat gas? In our case, that's also usage dependent and increases the total cost to about $1.20 per ccf. Still, quite a bit cheaper than electricity.

 

[Highbeam]

Efficiency of gas burners are never 100%.

 

[STIHLY DAN]

I did a comparison on clothes dryers, Electric at 21 c a KWH to LP at $2.50? Result was electricity cheaper.

 

[DougA]

I did a comparison on clothes dryers, Electric at 21 c a KWH to LP at $2.50? Result was electricity cheaper.

That seems very odd but in our area LP is very expensive, NG is cheap but I'm 1/4 mile from the NG line and I have no intention of paying well over $10K to have the line extended to my house plus another $5K for a new gas furnace plus ductwork. Cost comparisons are meaningless to me when you have lots of free wood.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

From the bill:

165 kWh. After all fees and taxes $39.79. Basic service charge is $17.00. 39.79/165 is .241. Or 24.1 cents per kWh
132 therms. After all fees and taxes $104.93 Basic service charge $20.36. 104.93/132 is .794. Or 79.4 cents per therm.

Elec service 26.41
Elec supply. 13.38

Gas delivery 44.50
Gas supply 60.43


Plug and play!

http://www.travisindustries.com/CostOfHeating_WkSht.asp

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Efficiency of gas burners are never 100%.

Never is a very strong word. The gas burner on my stove is as close to 100% as you can get. Surrounded by a sea of air for complete combustion, I don't know how any fuel would be unburnt.

Now, if you are talking about my boiler, you are 100% correct! The efficiency of the unit is rated at something around 85%. It really isn't important here though. To account for inefficiencies of an appliance, if you doubled the cost of my gas I'd still be ahead by a very wide margin.

 

[woodgeek]

You should edit the OP to correct the math to Grisu's numbers, yours are off my a large factor. 1 million BTUs is 1000/3.414 = 293 kWh, or 10 therms.

That said, the correct values are $70/MBTU and $8/MBTU for your two energy sources, a nearly order of magnitude difference.

What have we learned...you have some of the most expensive elec in the lower 48, and some of the cheapest gas. The ratio in many other markets is closer to 4-5, or infinite if, like me, I cannot hook up to a gas main.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Fair enough. I checked the numbers on a couple different spreadsheets. Edit in place. Sorry for any confusion.

 

[sloeffle]

24.1 cents per kilowatt hour

Why is your electric so expensive ?

 

[velvetfoot]

Fuzzy headed regulators.

 

[Grisu]

I did a comparison on clothes dryers, Electric at 21 c a KWH to LP at $2.50? Result was electricity cheaper.

Did you assume different efficiencies in your calculations or the install cost? Because strictly from the BTU numbers a LP dryer would be cheaper. For LP you pay about $27.50 per mBTU, for electric ~$60; roughly twice as much.

 

[Corey]

If the costs were closer, appliance efficiency becomes a bigger issue... electric heat is 100% efficient, old gas appliances maybe 75%, newer gas ~85%, high efficient may hit 95%, but an electric heat pump can have a 'coefficient of performance' of 2.5 or more ...meaning 2.5 btu out for every btu in, so they can 'burn' some moderately expensive electricity and still deliver lower cost than natural gas.

Another consideration is the breakdown of the bill. My natural gas is ~$25 customer charge and $6-7 worth of gas, so the apparent charge for a month of gas is pretty high, but if I double consumption, the bill may only go from $31 > $37. There may also be price breaks (or surcharges) for hitting some magic usage level.

Once you get a smart meter, things become even more complicated. Electricity rate can then be variable (oh, joy!)...likely dropping in the middle of the night when you don't know it and sky-rocketing in high demand periods when you need it most.

Though any way you look at it, it does seem like you're blessed with cheap gas and have horridly expensive electricity!

 

[STIHLY DAN]

Did you assume different efficiencies in your calculations or the install cost? Because strictly from the BTU numbers a LP dryer would be cheaper. For LP you pay about $27.50 per mBTU, for electric ~$60; roughly twice as much.

To be honest I don't recall exactly how I did it. There is a web site that deals with costs of running an appliance, and in there are charts for therms used in a drying cycle on size of dryer. Along with the same chart for electric. I believe it came out to be .50 cents for electricity and .53 for lp. Now, there may have been an error made on my part as our bill is written up by math wizards. We have like 7 different percentages per kwh. For example only,, delivery charge .006, line fee .002, access charge .012, regional tax .03, stranded line charge .04 usage .13 I made all this up, but that is how our bill is made up.

 

[EatenByLimestone]

Fuzzy headed regulators.

+1

That and the base charge for grid privilege is $17.35. It doesn't get spread out much.

Before I started cutting down on my electricity usage I think I was paying ~16-17 cents per kWh.

 

[Brian26]

Why is your electric so expensive ?

I

I should post one my bills. Last time I checked here in CT I think it was around .28 a kwh! We pay the highest rates in the continental US.